The injected fluids in secondary processes supplement the natural energy present in the reservoir to displace oil. The recovery efficiency mainly depends on the mechanism of pressure maintenance. However, the injected fluids in tertiary or enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes interact with the reservoir rock/oil system. Thus, EOR techniques are receiving substantial attention worldwide as the available oil resources are declining. However, some challenges, such as low sweep efficiency, high costs and potential formation damage, still hinder the further application of these EOR technologies. Current studies on nanoparticles are seen as potential solutions to most of the challenges associated with these traditional EOR techniques. This paper provides an overview of the latest studies about the use of nanoparticles to enhance oil recovery and paves the way for researchers who are interested in the integration of these progresses. The first part of this paper addresses studies about the major EOR mechanisms of nanoparticles used in the forms of nanofluids, nanoemulsions and nanocatalysts, including disjoining pressure, viscosity increase of injection fluids, preventing asphaltene precipitation, wettability alteration and interfacial tension reduction. This part is followed by a review of the most important research regarding various novel nano-assisted EOR methods where nanoparticles are used to target various existing thermal, chemical and gas methods. Finally, this review identifies the challenges and opportunities for future study regarding application of nanoparticles in EOR processes.

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Application of Nanoparticles in Enhanced Oil Recovery: A Critical Review of Recent Progress

Research on nanotechnology application in the oil and gas industry has been growing rapidly in the past decade, as evidenced by the number of scientific articles published in the field. With oil and gas reserves harder to find, access, and produce, the pursuit of more game-changing technologies that can address the challenges of the industry has stimulated this growth. Nanotechnology has the potential to revolutionize the petroleum industry both upstream and downstream, including exploration, drilling, production, and enhanced oil recovery (EOR), as well as refinery processes. It provides a wide range of alternatives for technologies and materials to be utilized in the petroleum industry. Nanoscale materials in various forms such as solid composites, complex fluids, and functional nanoparticle-fluid combinations are key to the new technological advances. This paper aims to provide a state-of-the-art review on the application of nanoparticles and technology in the petroleum industry, and focuses on enhanced oil recovery. We briefly summarize nanotechnology application in exploration and reservoir characterization, drilling and completion, production and stimulation, and refinery. Thereafter, this paper focuses on the application of nanoparticles in EOR. The different types of nanomaterials, e.g., silica, aluminum oxides, iron oxide, nickel oxide, titanium oxide, zinc oxide, zirconium oxide, polymers, and carbon nanotubes that have been studied in EOR are discussed with respect to their properties, their performance, advantages, and disadvantages. We then elaborate upon the parameters that will affect the performance of nanoparticles in EOR, and guidelines for promising recovery factors are emphasized. The mechanisms of the nanoparticles in the EOR processes are then underlined, such as wettability alteration, interfacial tension reduction, disjoining pressure, and viscosity control. The objective of this review is to present a wide range of knowledge and expertise related to the nanotechnology application in the petroleum industry in general, and the EOR process in particular. The challenges and future research directions for nano-EOR are pinpointed.

A State-of-the-Art Review of Nanoparticles Application in Petroleum with a Focus on Enhanced Oil Recovery

Oil production from matured crude oil reservoirs is still associated with low recovery factors. Chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is one of the techniques which can significantly improve the recovery factor of the trapped oil. This is mainly achieved by lowering the interfacial tension (IFT) of the crude oil–brine/aqueous chemical and increasing the viscosity of the injected fluid. Nanofluids have demonstrated potential in this respect, and we thus examined how such nanofluids behave when formulated with standard oilfield polymers, with a particular focus on their EOR efficiency. In this work, silica (SiO2) nanofluids with (NSP) or without (NP) surfactant (sodium dodecyl sulfate) added and with varying nanoparticle concentration were formulated with polyacrylamide (PAM) and characterized by DLS and ζ-potential measurements. These nanofluids were then tested in EOR core-flood experiments. Various studies involving the stability and viscosity of nanofluids, interfacial tension of the nanofluid-crude oil ...

Silica Nanofluids in an Oilfield Polymer Polyacrylamide: Interfacial Properties, Wettability Alteration, and Applications for Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery

Recent advances in application of nanotechnology in chemical enhanced oil recovery: Effects of nanoparticles on wettability alteration, interfacial tension reduction, and flooding

Lebedev Maxim

Papers

Wettability alteration of oil-wet carbonate by silica nanofluid.